About two or three times a week, I go into “stupid mode” where I make stupid and unnecessary mistakes on the computer. This includes deleting files that I don’t want to delete and so for the past few weeks I have been researching file recovery tools. Then we are asked by Soft Logica to review HandyRecovery and I think that it makes a worthwhile addition to the list of available tools.

When you delete a file, it isn’t really deleted. The PC just tells you it’s deleted and gives you back the space for other files. Eventually the deleted file gets written over and over until it is virtually unrecoverable. But until then, the file CAN be retrieved from DeletionLand if you’re using the proper tools and if you have the know-how. Just think of all the cop shows on TV who catch the bad guys with the incriminating evidence because the lab geek gets a hold of the bad guy’s computer.

With Handy Recovery, you first have to specify where the file was originally. You then press the “analyze” button and the program begins to scan your hard-drive to see which files are recoverable.

You can then click on a file and be given a preview of what can be recovered. MP3 files and videos are the hardest to recover, text files and pictures are the easiest. But no matter what the file format is, it’s entirely possible that you won’t get a 100% complete file anyway (it all depends on how long ago the file was deleted and what you have downloaded / installed since then). I particularly like the preview feature on Handy Recovery so you can see at a glance what is left.

You also get a status for each file such as “good” or “poor” so you can see right away what your chances are of getting back the file. If you decide that the chances look good, just click the “Recover” button and you will get back what the program is capable of recovering for you.

Handy Recovery is not free – it costs $39 for a single-user license. I am not normally one to advocate paying for software but I am really impressed with Handy Recovery and so this would be one piece of software where I would break my “don’t pay for software” rule. It has lots of features and is easy to use.

However, if you decide that you don’t want to pay for a file recovery tool, check out a free alternative called Restoration which I reviewed here on Make Use Of back in September. We also mentioned Recuva back in MakeUseOf Extra # 15.

Which file recovery tool do you use? Tell us in the comments!

We have actually profiled FrehsBargains in MakeUseOf Directory about a week ago and were going to post it in the latest ‘Cool Websites’ roundup. But FreshBargains folks wanted to go with a full post instead, … we agreed.

So What is FreshBargains?

FreshbBargains is a deal search engine that lets you search for fresh bargain deals on 15 major deal websites (mostly tech related) including SlickDeals, FatWallet, TechBargains, Ben’s Bargains, GotApex, Deals2Buy, DealNews, XPBargains and several more.

Unlike other deal aggregators, FreshBargains has a clean and extremely simple interface, all you get is a search option. The idea of having one search to all major deal websites, makes it quite compelling. On top of that, there are some other useful features as well:

• ‘Latest Deals’ RSS Feed: Follow on newest deals (last 24 hours) from your feedreader.
• Free Alerts: Option to subscribe to email alerts for coupons or bargains deals on products you’re interested in, i.e. ‘macbook pro’, “˜ipod touch’, and so on. Once subscribed, every time there is a deal for that particular product you will be notified by email.
• Filter: Filter deals by deal source. Say you don’t want to include Fatwallet in your search results than simply uncheck it from the sources list.

To make things even easier, Freshbargains also offers a cross-platform Firefox Toolbar. If you’re a heavy deal hunter it’s definitely worth a look. Check it out below. If the toolbar isn’t really your thing there is also an option to add FB Search to your Firefox search bar. It doesn’t occupy any space and at the same time is always available.

That’s about it. Overall, I like the simplicity behind it. It’ simple, fast and has all the vital features you may be looking for. If there is one thing I would add to it, that would be free SMS alerts. Email alerts are great but having the option of getting alerts on your mobile would be even better.

Disclaimer: This is a paid review ordered by AVS. Even though the company has paid for the review, our views are still our own and we are allowed to be negative if we want to! Besides, somebody has to pay the bills around here for the wild Make Use Of parties. Beer and girls don’t come cheap these days!

Now that I have a new shiny 580GB computer, I am starting to back up my DVD’s on the PC. Not that I am planning to share them online in any way (God forbid!) but instead the DVD’s are getting a little worn from over-use and a backup copy is always a good idea. But you need a good conversion program to ensure you have the best possible quality while watching Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider. AVS Video Converter is one of those programs you should consider if you are planning to back up your video files.

But we should first point out that AVS Video Converter is not free. However if you decide to buy it, you will get free access to all the other software on their website. So we figured it was a worthwhile deal to profile them on Make Use Of.

So let’s take a look at some of the features that AVS Video Converter offers. A complete overview is available here but let’s briefly look at what I think are the best features.

• You can first of all convert DVD disks to digital computer files in formats such as “avi”, “mp4″ (the iPod format), MPEG, MOV (Apple), Windows Media Player, Real Player and Shockwave Flash. You can see the different options in the screenshot above. It’s as simple as pointing AVS to the DVD in your computer DVD drive, specifying a folder where the converted digital file needs to go, choosing your file format then pressing the convert button. Easy.

• Next, you can turn computer digital video files into DVD’s. Perhaps you have downloaded the contents of your camcorder to your computer? You can use AVS Video Converter to make DVD’s which you can play on the television. You can even make DVD menus!

• Make flash / Real / WMV videos for your website.

• Save the audio stream as an audio file (maybe to make your own audio book?) and save single frames as image files.

• Enhance your movies! Convert video & delete unwanted parts. Split and join video files. Rotate, add titles and credits, apply more than 50 audio and video effects to your movies. This is the part that got my girlfriend’s father really interested (he is a big fan of amateur film-making and movie special effects).

On the whole I found the program extremely easy to use and it produced efficient and high quality results. The price may be a little on the steep side but I still think that if you are involved a great deal in editing / producing video, or if you want to backup an extensive DVD collection then AVS Video Converter is worth a very serious look. And most importantly, by purchasing AVS Video Converter you automatically get access to almost 30 other video /audio tools.

For simpler free video conversion possibilities, here are a few links that you might want to consider :

• 18 Online Tools to Edit, Mix and Enhance your Videos
• Top Online File Converters (Video, Audio, Images, Docs, Archives)
• 18 Free Ways To Download Any Video off the Internet
• Movavi: Free Online Video Converter
• FullPix: Free Video Encoding Software
• Media-Convert

So what you think about AVS Converter? Tell us in comments

In the interests of full disclosure, this is a paid review, ordered by ACA Capture Pro. But even though the company has paid for the review, my views are still my own and I am allowed to be negative if I want! You can rest assured that the following opinions are really what I think!

Screen capture software has a lot of rivals to contend with as the market starts to heat up. As well as all the free options available (which we’ll get into later), there are also paid options, one prime example being ACA Capture PRO, screen capture software from ACA Systems.

I was given a trial version of ACA Capture Pro to give it a workout and see what I thought. My initial impression is that it is easy to use and it produces good quality pictures, but one drawback immediately became apparent – it has right-click menu integration with Internet Explorer but not with Mozilla Firefox or Opera. Since I am a Firefox user 99% of the time and Opera the other 1% of the time, ignoring these two browsers doesn’t make a lot of sense to me from a business perspective seeing as how Firefox is slowly starting to dominate the browser market and how Internet Explorer leaves a really bad taste in some peoples mouths. Hopefully the company is working on Firefox and Opera right-click menu integration.

So today I broke the habit of a lifetime by actually using Internet Explorer! Man, I’m getting the shakes here!

The first thing to notice after installing the software is that ACA Capture Pro places some options in your Internet Explorer right-click mouse menu. The first one is fairly self-explanatory – it captures all the Flash on a page.

The second one is quite interesting though and I haven’t seen this on any other screen capture software. Basically “Capture all images” quickly grabs all the pictures from a webpage and puts them on your computer. This is very useful if you have a page full of graphics – instead of tediously right-clicking and saving each individual picture, this option can grab all the pictures with one mouse-click. Extremely useful.

The third one is the option to make a screenshot of the entire page and you can choose whether you want the browser to appear in the picture or have the IE elements removed. As you can also see from the screenshot, you can also export the image to Microsoft Excel but you also have the opportunity to export images to Word and Powerpoint (if you have them installed on your computer obviously).

The company recommends that you use a Hotkey to capture images instead of right-clicking with the mouse, and keyboard shortcut enthusiasts will like this one. To do a screenshot, the Hotkey is CTRL + F2. This then starts a cursor which you drag across the screen to capture the part you want and you can then save it to the computer.

One feature I particularly liked was that when I hit the “print screen” key on the keyboard, ACA Capture Pro immediately took a screenshot of the webpage and automatically inserted it into an email as an attachment. But here, the bias towards Microsoft becomes even more evident as it overrode my default email client (web-based Gmail) and instead opened my girlfriend’s Outlook Express.

There’s so much to ACA Capture Pro that it would be impossible to cover it all here, so the best course of action would be to download the free trial version and give it a go yourself. But if you click here, you will see a screenshot of the MakeUseOf page that I took with ACA Capture Pro so you can judge for yourself how good it is.

Now I know there are lots of users out there who don’t like paid software (I met a few when I was promoting the virtues of SnagIt) and so to balance things out (plus to provide some comparison), here are some free basic alternatives :

1. Gadwin PrintScreen – scroll down for the free version.

2. MW Snap.

3. Screenshot Captor ]]> http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/take-effective-screenshots-with-aca-capture-pro/feed/ 3 http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/triviaonnet-online-mutli-player-trivia-games/ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/triviaonnet-online-mutli-player-trivia-games/#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:54:49 +0000 Aibek Esengulov http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/triviaonnet-online-mutli-player-trivia-games/ TriviaOnNet requested us to run a sponsored review for them. As mentioned before, MakeUseOf only accepts what we think may benefit you or what you may be interested to learn about. And also because somebody have to pay the bills out here…

Update: The site is no longer online.

So what’s TriviaOnNet all about?

TriviaOnNet – is an online community and platform for multiplayer trivia tournaments. It’s a platform where you can play trivia quizzes, participate in community tournaments and at the same time earn money for your knowledge. In their own words: “Our aim is to satisfy the needs of the ever growing, huge community of Trivia players, competing against each other based on their knowledge & speed.”

Trivia questions/quizzes come from variety of categories, so you can either enter games in your own subject, or challenge your skills on unknown grounds. Some of the categories include:

• Music Trivia: Who was that band? Who sang that song? (The Beatles, Metallica, Elvis, Mozart”¦)
• Sports Trivia: Superbowl trivia, NBA trivia, Baseball trivia, etc.
• Entertainment Trivia: TV Shows (Seinfeld, Friends, …), Movies (Harry potter, Lord of the Rings, Pulp Fiction…), Show Biz (Paris Hilton”¦)

All trivia games are against other TriviaOnNet members. Games can be either for pure fun or for money, where each participant requires to pay entry fee. Obviously, to actually win some cash you will need to participate in paid ones. Before entering any game you can see it’s entry requirements, the prize to be won, and the number of participants. When it comes to safety, TriviaOnNet claims to provide fair, regulated and a secure environment, and guarantees automated game results free of human interference.

Trivia Tournaments

Another fun part about TriviaOnNet are Trivia Tournaments. Tournaments feature a huge jackpot but are at the same time open to a lot more participants. For instance, currently listed tournament has $ 10.000 in jackpot and open to 400 participants.

And finally, there is a TriviaOnNet community. More like a place to socialize with fellow Trivia players. Here you can join some topic specific groups and check out some insightful discussions on particularly interesting topics (Why Do We Laugh ?).

That’s about it. Overall TriviaOnNet seems like a a good concept. I am sure there are thousands of trivia fans who would find the service entertaining. Oh, and if you signup with TriviaOnNet now you will get $5 bonus. Plus a 50% bonus on your very first deposit. Minimum deposit sum is $25. For all other details go to FAQ page. Enjoy!

One of the biggest challenges facing any webmaster / blogger is how to give yourself a higher position in the search engine results. Obviously we all vie for that coveted number one spot on Google but even breaking into the top ten can be a big achievement these days, given the growing proliferation of websites. But how do you successfully navigate your way to the top?

The answer, according to Google, is to have your site linked to “high-quality websites” and so every webmaster and blogger is subsequently on the lookout for sites to swap links with. But this can be a long and difficult process as

• Finding the right sites to link to can be difficult.
• Websites come and go on a daily basis.
• Links get inserted then replaced on a regular basis.
• Webmasters and bloggers will not link to you unless it in their best interests to do so.

Enter TNX.net to make your life a little easier. If you are a webmaster / blogger, you can sell links on your webpages and TNX is the “middle man” taking a 12.5% cut of the revenue you manage to generate. Linking to other sites will help you generate some cash flow. How much you are able to command for each link is dependent on the number of backlinks (based on Yahoo) to that page. The higher the count, the higher the price.

If you are a publisher, TNX will enable you to automatically showcase your pages to thousands of potential advertisers. One major advantage of TNX, over the other similar programs is targeting and relevance. Not only it allows advertisers to buy links from related websites but also from the sites in the same geographical region or country.

When you sell ad space on your site, you are paid in points and advertisers must also use points to buy links. You can at any time sell your points for cash, either to TNX or to another TNX user. What makes the TNX service unique is that the ads are not just confined to the main page. You can also sell links on all your sub-pages too. So you can set each page to work, earning money for you.

I personally feel that using a service like TNX takes away some of the fun of building a website and building contacts. I would much rather do some networking and earn my own links the old-fashioned way. But we are all different in our approach to the internet and if you are either a business that relies heavily on online exposure to drive your sales or if you are a webmaster / blogger looking to earn some extra cash, then TNX.net is definately worth considering.

Softonic is the biggest software download directory in Europe and second largest in the world (right after download.com). According to Alexa stats, Softonic is among top 250 most-visited websites on the web. It receives almost 20 million monthly visitors and serves close to 1 million software downloads per day. Softonic is less popular than Download.com however it seems to provide a more user-friendly interface and a couple of additional features.

Softonic software directory consists of five main sections: Windows, Mac, Palm OS, Pocket PC, and Phones. Each section is further divided into sub-categories: Audio, Business, Customize your PC, Design & Photography, Development, Games, Home & Hobbies, Internet, Productivity, Science & Education, Security, Utilities, and Video. Additionally, for each main section you can check out: ‘Top Weekly’ downloads (eg. here is for Widnows), ‘Top ranked’ and ‘Top Premium’ software. The website also provides powerful search and filtering options that lets you quickly find the program you’re looking for.

You may also discover a handful of cool programs by checking out hot and popular software search terms (see below). Click on a search term and you”ll be presented with all relevant software (incl. user ratings, nr. of downloads and reviews).

In case you’re interested only in ‘Freeware’ tools than Softonic provides an excellent option letting you filter out all non-free programs . Check it out in the screenshot below.

Other Softonic features:

• Bookmark favorite programs: Save your favorite programs in your account.
• Email alerts: Receive ‘new release’ notifications for all software in your favorites box.
• History: Keep track of all downloaded software online.
• Subscribe (via RSS): Stay tuned on the latest programs for Windows/ Mac/ Palm OS/ Pocket PC /Phones.
• Alternate Download Links: Multiple download locations for each software.
• Advanced Search: Options to filter search results by license (i.e. freeware), by user-rating and age (eg. less then a month old).
• Multi-lingual: View Softonic.com in Spanish, German, or English.

Softonic Blog

Another interesting point of Softonic is the frequently updated blog (InsideTonic), which is in itself a place to follow up on undiscovered programs and tips. An example of this can be the latest post discussing free windows utility known as Private Floppy ,OR recently published Top 10 uninstallers for stubborn programs. Definitely worth checking out. See full InsideTonic archives here.

EarnMyDegree is the first website to request a sponsored review from MakeUseOf and based on the service it is offering we are happy to so. This is exactly the type of sponsored review we were looking for: something that’s useful to our readers and is free. This way we can maintain quality content and also cover running costs.

EarnMyDegree is a comprehensive directory of accredited online colleges, web-based degree programs, and related educational information. The aim behind it, is to offer working professionals a way to take their education to the next level without interrupting their work or established life style. In other words, you can enroll in one of the degree programs without bringing too much of load into your daily life or leaving your current job. By enrolling in one of the colleges offering online degrees you get the same diploma plus the following:

• Convenience: you decide when and where to take your classes.
• Fast: possibility to get a degree online in as little as ten months.
• Financial Aid: very flexible financial aid options.
• Keep Priorities: continue to work full-time and spend time with your family.

EarnMyDegree features hundreds of degree programs covering wide range of disciplines: Business, Law, Science, Art, etc. All of the listed degrees are offered either by one of the accredited web-based universities (i.e. Kaplan University) or traditional colleges (Boston University, Cornell University, University of Phoenix, etc.). On top, different degree levels are available so whether you’re planning to complete your Bachelor’s, get a Master’s degree or even a PhD, there is a high chance to find something suitable.

EarnMyDegree is simply a directory that makes finding a degree of your choice easier by aggregating everything you need in one place. It’s free and doesn’t require any registration. Once you find degree of your choice you’ll be redirected to the college’s website where you can request free info package for the program in question. There are several ways you can navigate through EarnMyDegree, browse degrees:

• by Subject: Business, Criminal Justice, Culinary Arts, Design & Art, Education/Teaching, Engineering, Legal/Paralegal, Liberal Arts, and more.
• by degree level: Associate, Bachelor’s, Master’s, MBA Programs, Doctoral/PhD Programs, Certificate Programs.
• by College name: over 70 colleges
• by Campus Location: California, Florida,Georgia, Pennsylvania, etc.

Alternatively, you can use Quick Degree Finder that lets you quickly find desired degree by simply indication preferred subject and degree level. Check it out below

In addition to being a online directory for degrees, EarnMyDegree also provides a Learning Center, a section that brings all supplementary info you may need: Career Information, Financial Aid resources, etc. That’s mainly it. Need a degree? Definitely check it out.